ramblings of an entrepreneurial madman

shit hasn’t been going well so i’ll do my best to explain. the past few months have been hell and as it’s looking right now, this business is going to flop. we finally got rid of the stupid fucking moron that was dragging us down by not performing his duties and we found someone who was really good to replace him. the bigger problem now is that the company we partnered up with who is supposed to be handling all of the backend work appears to have no prior knowledge or experience in doing so, even though they gave the impression they’ve been doing it for a long time.

naturally one would think, “we’ll if they can’t do it, find someone else,” and that’s what we’ve been trying to do for the last month. the problem is that this is such a new concept that there is no one out there capable of doing it. we found 1 guy that can, but the commissions he pays are so low that it just isnt a viable business if we refer to him, so we are stuck between a rock and a hard place right now.

as it stands, we are pulling the plug at the end of this month and over 100k of commissions are going down the toliet. this is one of those things that there is a huge market for and the concept makes perfect sense; but no one has broken through yet. once someone does, the flood gates will open in terms of earnings and profitability but who knows when that will be.

i was forced to take a job because my original work from home employement laid me off. my new employement is business to business sales for commercial collections and i fucking hate it with a passion. not to mention that the money is absolutely fucking horrible. i barely make enough to cover my monthly living expenses so i’m unable to get “ahead” working there. the last several months i’ve just been existing and wondering why every business i start ultimately seems to fail. it just keeps happening over and over again and i don’t know how much more of this shit i can take.

goals haven’t been updated because i have no fucking clue what i’m going to do that this point. its hard to have goals when your life is in limbo as mine has been the last couple of months. once we officially pull the plug i’m going to have to see what else i can do as a side business to try and earn a living because my current employement isnt going to cut it.

its incredible that when i started this blog i thought i would posting about my success and how i achieved it, and this would all happen shortly after it’s inception. Instead what i’ve really got is a 2 year journal of my repeated failures and ongoing depression as a result.

My existing company was founded by myself and two business partners. 1 of which (the attorney) is completely fucking useless. FYI, just because someone has a law degree, don’t assume they are smart, because the guy we are working with is not only LAZY AS FUCK, but a complete dumbass (good combo right?). He has not done a single task we have asked of him since starting this partnership several months ago and it isn’t going to work out with him.

The good news is that we found an alternative which allows us to continue working within the same market/industry. Since this business model has the potential to be extremely lucrative, one of my main concerns was wondering if we were going to have to pull the plug on the entire thing because of this idiot. Luckily that hasn’t been the case, yet..

We found another company to outsource our deals to and have been referring them business for the last month. Essentially all of the tasks that our own in-house attorney/partner was supposed to be doing have been sent to an outside firm.

My other business partner and I have been working exclusively on sales and marketing and things have been picking up in that regard, however I’m looking forward to cutting off this fucking idiot as soon as possible. We are going to give him a piece of the deals we acquired while we were in business together but anything after that is 100% ours; he isn’t getting shit. This may sound harsh, but trust me he doesn’t deserve it. If anything he has made everything harder for us and if I really wanted to be cut-throat I’d tell him to go fuck himself and not pay him on any of the deals PERIOD. However I decided not to do that. I don’t like bad karma and I’m not about to end things with him that way.

Moving on!

So it looks like we’ve finally gotten a lot of our marketing kinks worked out and are generating some consistent leads. First goal is to get to 10 deals a month, then 12, then 15, and eventually 20+. Right now we have 5 with more appointments getting setup so it looks like we might hit our goal of 10 or come very close. Regardless, we are finally starting to turn this thing around and the good news is that if we are only able to do 10-15 deals a month, we will still be in the 7+figure mark in a year or so. The only problem is I want to make as much money as possible in the next 24-36 months because eventually the market conditions will change and we will miss out on this opportunity.

So where does this leave us now?

Well the new company we are working with hasn’t been the best experience thus far. Their response time is slow and they don’t seem very organized. We know they are doing what we need them to do because they have provided proof that they’ve done it in the past. The problem is just that they don’t seem to have their shit together from an administrative standpoint and I really hope this is just a temporary issue due to rapid growth. If we are still having the same problems in a couple months, that we are having right now, there is going to be a big issue.

This idea/business is a multi-million dollar business without question. We just can’t seem to find anyone competent enough to do it. We’d handle it ourselves if we could but there are still a lot of unanswered questions and things we do not know how to do. Until we get those answers, we are forced to outsource.

I think I’m on my way – I just pray these idiots we are working with now are able to uphold their end of the bargain.

Funny how my goal was to be a millionaire at this point and I’m not even fucking close. I’m on the right path, I’m positive about that however it’s just taking so fucking long. I’m still broke as shit and still trying to get this company to take off. Our marketing is still a nightmare. Every campaign we try just fucking fails and I don’t understand what the problem is. There is such a huge market for this service and we can’t seem to be getting people out there to see that.

One thing I’m beginning to notice is that more and more companies are doing this and I’m worried about competition. We need to establish ourselves as heavy hitters before shit gets out of hand. That’s not going to happen closing a deal or two a month, so we need to figure this shit out fucking fast. I need, at a bare minimum, 100 properties on the books AND paying before the end of the year – no questions asked.

One thing that really pissed me off is that my business partner just decided to take a week long vacation this week and it’s the worst time imaginable. For him to just leave when we are struggling with this shit really pisses me off. We need to get this turned around and I’m beginning to think if I personally don’t turn it around, it’s not going to happen at all.

I’ve done a few small test mailing campaigns just to see the type of response we get. It’s something completely different and I hope it generates some calls. If it works it is easily scaleable so we’ll see. Our last mail campaign was a fucking bust. What else is new right??

I’m having trouble sleeping over this because once we get this one issue figured out the sky is the limit.

I haven’t been blogging much because there isn’t much to talk about other then my repeated failures. I keep hoping that I’ll have something positive to write but it never happens.

Hopefully that day will come soon.

Apparently after Whitney Houston died, everyone was searching for “whitney houston crack head” because my blog got a shitload of traffic from that keyword.

Like this:

My birthday is Feb 24th and I can’t believe I’m turning 30. It feels like just the other day I was partying at college just enjoying life and ever since graduating I’ve been fighting for my financial survival. If there is anything I’ve learned in the past 7 years, it’s that this shit isn’t supposed to be easy. If it were, then we’d have an entire nation of rich-ass motherfucker’s who don’t appreciate their wealth.

We’re dropping some money on a big marketing campaign and I hope to fucking God this is the “one” because we’ve tried so much shit – none of which has worked. I just want that phone to blow up so I can know for a fact; it’s happening, it’s going to work…

This past weekend the Giants won the Superbowl and I’m a diehard fan so I was stoked about that! The only problem was that I ended up drinking way to much and I’m trying to watch my budget, so for the rest of this month I have to keep a tighter lid on my shit.

Anyways, goals for February!! Well first off, we need to get the damn phone ringing. I guess that’s the most important thing right now because if we can do that, the deals will come. I’d like to have almost 10 deals total by the end of the month but I’m not sure about that. Who knows though. If this marketing push we’re doing this week works out, it very well may happen.

It looks like my goal of being a legitimate millionaire by the time I’m 30 was an epic failure but if it occurs in the next year or two I won’t complain too much, I just need to see something positive here. I’ve lost count of how many things I’ve tried that didn’t work out. I’m sick and fucking tired of it.

this is more a post on general reflection. fuck spell check because i dont have time for that shit and i’m writing now that i’m inspired.

my business is growing but not fast enough. we currently have 3 closed deals and a 4th on the way but we want to be doing 20-30 a month, not fucking 4. our marketing is fucked and it feels like everything we do is an uphill battle. you hear these success stories of people talking about how they struggled for so fucking long then it “finally took off,” well what the fuck? this goddamn jet has been sitting on the runway long enough. i have a business meeting tomorrow with the other principals to discuss our current problems and try to find ways to resolve them; therefore tonight i’m staying in and finishing off a bottle of cab.

all this shit drives me fucking crazy because i’m so dedicated and won’t stop at anything until i hit my goal. the thing that pisses me off is that i feel like it SHOULD NOT BE THIS HARD… i started this goddamn blog two years ago and was working on various business endeavors for many years prior to starting my blog… in fact, this has been a goal of mine since i moved to Arizona, which happened 7 FUCKING YEARS AGO. What the fuck?!

a million dollars isnt a lot of money anyways so i don’t know why i’m having so much trouble getting there… it sure as hell won’t buy you what it used to.

the company i work for currently, while i’m working on my own business is a perfect example of the type of shit that drives me nuts. its run by a bunch of goddamn monkeys. there is no organization whatsoever and their customer service is a fucking disaster. the company as a whole is one of the most poorly run businesses i’ve ever been a part of, yet they are making millions…

goal was to have 500 properties by the end of 2012 and there is no way in hell that shit is happening with our current setup. we keep spending money testing different marketing avenues and nothing seems to work. its extremely frustrating.

i’ve said this so many times before and $1,000,000.00 is really not what i’m after. its not the fucking money, its the FREEDOM that money provides. the ability to do what you want, when you want. the ability to travel, to enjoy life, to never worry about finances or bills. THAT’s what i’m after…

7 fucking years. i can’t believe it. 7 years and i’m still in the same fucking position i was in when i first moved… unreal.

my only hope is the belief that all of the learning, and struggling, and growing as a man both personally and in business, has made me that much more likely to succeed now, verses in 2005. without that, its like i wasted the last 7 years of my life. i cant think that way. i wont think that way…

it all has to be part of the process right? steps in the right direction? it fucking HAS to be…

I know I haven’t been posting a lot lately but in all seriousness, it’s because nothing has happened that’s worth mentioning. I keep looking forward to that post I’m going to make when i earn my first million, but that’s a good year or so away.

Right now we are moving forward and have closed 2 deals, and are working on more. The problem is that the deals are falling much too slowly, so we need to get our marketing figured out asap. The good news is that we are in communication with a real estate agent in Las Vegas, who happens to be a heavy hitter and she’s extremely excited about what we are doing/offering. She said she can refer us a lot of business and we are hoping that she helps us get over this hump. I have a conference call scheduled with her this week.

Our own marketing efforts continue to fall short but we are committed to this and not going to give up. There is simply too much money at stake. We can make a boatload just bringing in a little bit of business, but the astronomical money will come if we can iron this thing out and bring in 50-100 deals a month.

I’m super excited because 2012 is really going to be a great year, but I’m also anxious because things are not working out as quickly as I had hoped. I want to hit the ground running in January and don’t want to waste any time still trying to figure shit out. We need to have 500 deals on the books before the end of 2012, that is a MUST! I figure we have 12-24 months before people start doing what we are doing and the competition starts to really get saturated. I’d like to have 1,000-2,000 deals on our books before that happens.

Anyways, I’m looking forward to 2012 and this holiday season will be a laid back one. It’s been a long ass time since I’ve been financially stable during the holidays and doing alright. I was actually able to buy myself some Christmas gifts, which I haven’t done in years!

I’m going to enjoy this down time because int he New Year it’s on!

I’ll probably make another post before the end of the month but I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.

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I’d be back later this week with some good news and I was right! I closed our first deal on Wednesday and it looks like I closed 2 more tonight. 1 of the 2 isn’t 100% but I feel pretty damn confident about it so we’ll see.

Tomorrow(Saturday) I have a long day of dialing and trying to catch some of the people I have been unable to reach the last few days. Aside from that, it’s just a standard weekend of working out and lying low. I cannot begin to express how excited I am that we are closing deals. I would like to have close to 20 deals on the books before the end of the year but I’m not sure how realistic of an expectation that is. Right now we are on pace to do about 5 before the end of November and that means we would need 15 in the month of December alone. That’s a piece a cake and 1 sales rep can do that many deals. I know this because I’ve done it in the past for my previous employer, however we are still trying to figure out our marketing and until we are able to do that the deals are going to trickle in very slowly.

What’s almost more important than the actual deals at this point is our marketing and getting that completely figured out over the next month so we can hit the ground running in 2012. It will be here before we know it.

On a not-so-bright note, I’m getting angry with both of my business partners and their lack of effort. I’m up until late in the evening entering leads into our system and also doing a ton of research on different marketing methods. On top of that I’m making all of my calls for my current employer as well as for my new company and thus far I’m the only one bringing in business. Not only that but I was up until midnight last night entering leads into our system so we’d have people to call today and my business partner did not call 1 fucking lead.

I’d be lying if I said this didn’t bother me because that’s fucking bullshit. If I’m staying up late to make sure we have work to do the next day and he doesn’t do it what the fuck is the point of having him as a partner? Even if he does call the leads he is still not doing as much work as me because I’m handling the marketing as well but the fact that he didn’t even call 1 lead was just a slap in the face.

I need to have a talk with him and it’s bullshit that I even need to bring this up. Both of my business partners are older and since I’m the young guy I think they are expecting me to do all of the work. If that’s the case, fine, but I’m going to get more than 1/3rd of the company if that’s whats going to go down.

Anyways, I’m going to try to not leave this on a low note and just reiterate how happy I am that we’ve begun closing deals. Hopefully we get our marketing in order and this thing takes off like wild-fire! Enjoy your weekends people, more to come later.